Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed has urged Putrajaya to increase funding for the police in Budget 2014 to improve crime fighting efforts.

NONE In a press release today, Nur Jazlan said that present allocation of RM90 million was "clearly insufficient".

"The police requires more funding from the government because security factors are always an issue close to the hearts of the public and also because (the issue) is often manipulated by the opposition," he said.

Opposition figures have frequently criticised the federal government for not prioritising street crimes.

For Budget 2013, Putrajaya had allocated RM1.8 billion for the police's internal security and public order division but only RM524 million for its criminal investigation division (CID).

The internal security and public order division has often been accused of being a tool of the ruling party to monitor and harass their opponents.

Opposition lawmaker Liew Chin Tong have pointed out that funding for the internal security and public order division increased by 83.7 percent since 2010.

In contrast, funding for the CID has increased by only 47.9 percent within the same period.

The way funds are steered away from the CID was also addressed in the Royal Commission of Inquiry report in 2005, which recommended that at least 20,000 police personnel be reassigned from various departments to active policing work.

azlan